Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn collects a few comments on the composition of the collectors in the Contemporary art market. Overall, it’s not just international buyers but business owners driving this market. And, according to the anecdotal evidence, players from the financial markets are far less important:

• “The art market is a place for new people these days,” Christophe Van de Weghe, a New York-based dealer, said in an interview. “There are Americans nobody has seen before who are excited by this world and who want an alternative to shares. And then there are buyers coming in from places like India and China. The collectors who bought 15 years ago aren’t prepared to pay today’s higher prices.”

• “Overall the market is more balanced and focused than it was in the last boom,” said the London-based art adviser Wendy Goldsmith. “Though there are new clients coming in all the time, these are mainly international business people. The hedge- fund crowd isn’t so much a factor this time round.”

• “The market is hungry for great works at ‘masterpiece’ level,” the New York-based art adviser Mary Hoeveler said in an interview. “There is tremendous wealth to buy them. New buyers are also migrating to the contemporary market from other more traditional art collecting fields. Demand for contemporary art has increased exponentially.”

• “Richter is going to play a huge role in the market for years to come,” Jonathan Binstock, a New York-based senior contemporary-art adviser at Citibank NA, said in an interview. “Collectors are going for artists with proven reputations.”

Richter Tops Hot Artists as New Buyers Boost $1.7 Billion Sales (Bloomberg)